Projectile launchers/shooting mechanisms are well known in the art and include mechanisms for launching toy darts, balls of various sizes, paint balls, etc., and even paper money. Various toy launchers/guns known in the art employ a projectile shooting mechanism made up of two opposed rotatable wheels (known as a drive or fly wheels) which engage a dart or other various balls and projectiles there between. A motor drives rotation of one or both wheels creating a launching force frictionally applied to the dart/projectile as the dart/projectile engages a wheel surface on each of the opposed rotatable wheels. The rotating wheels impart sufficient energy to the dart/projectile to launch the dart/projectile from the gun/shooter or hopper.
Some known methods/mechanisms for feeding darts into a drive or fly wheel or other energized launching mechanism includes advancing mechanisms actively pushing darts or projectiles into an energized launching mechanism or, alternatively, mechanisms which remove physical barriers from a path or channel leading to a launching mechanism. Various known feeding mechanisms employ rods, pistons or hammers which actively push darts into an adjacent launching mechanism. Feeding mechanisms are known to include an elongated arm biased into contact with a stack of darts lined up adjacent a drive wheel. The arm is biased into contact with the upper most dart of the stack and urges the lower most dart into the barrel adjacent the drive wheel. A biased trigger and hammer arrangement push the dart through the barrel and into the drive wheel for firing the dart when the trigger is pulled.
Also known is a trigger lever which rotates when pulled, translating into movement of a bullet pusher to advance a bullet toward rotating projector wheels which then fire the bullet. The bullet pusher can be motorized to advance bullets faster as the trigger can activate a motor to drive the bullet pusher in a reciprocating manner firing bullets in a rapid fire manner. Other known feeding mechanisms remove physical barriers from a path leading to a launching mechanism and are known to include a biased trigger, that when depressed, removes a barrier and allows a dart or projectile to enter a launch channel for engagement with rotating flywheels or drive wheels to project the dart.
Other known mechanisms utilize a belt surface to elevate or transport projectiles or balls to a launching mechanism or to shoot projectiles such as paper money from a gun. It is known to employ a belt surface with multiple holders that separate the belt surface into compartments so as to carry multiple balls, each ball in its own individual compartment, along the belt surface from a hopper to the launching mechanism. This individual arrangement of balls on the belt surface allows for the feeding of only one ball at a time into the launcher mechanism, even though multiple balls travel together from the hopper to the launcher mechanism. Also, it is known to dispose a conveyer belt between two conveyor belt drive wheels and dispose a stack of paper currency onto a surface of the belt. Movement of the belt forces sheets of paper currency out a currency exit slot of a gun. Additionally, it is known to secure darts to a belt surface, by storing each dart in its own bracket on the belt. The belt travels through a launcher housing where motorized flywheels lift each dart from its storage compartment and launch each dart from the housing.
Significantly, known toy launchers do not include a funnel feeding magazine loading mechanism using a pathway and a stuffer that penetrates a dart magazine feeding darts for rapidly firing darts from the toy apparatus for hassle-free dart feeding, magazine loading and firing from the launcher. It is found desirable to provide a dart funnel on the housing assembly for at least one dart manually fed into the funnel to reliably load each dart while at the same time employing magazine loading, stuffer, and dart launching mechanisms continually with a stuffer mechanism above the magazine for penetrating therein and stuff retained dart for loading into the magazine; the inserted magazine receiving a series of darts loaded into the dart magazine and thereafter advancing darts to a dart launching mechanism.